Prophetic Extracts 3.46–4.0

“This passage, then, running somewhat as it does, signifies many and marvellous things; but for now we shall discuss what is needed concerning the times and what bears on them. That these things are said about the coming of Christ, who was to appear after seventy weeks, is clear. For in the time of the Saviour, or from him, transgressions are made old and sins are brought to an end through forgiveness, and lawless deeds together with injustices are blotted out by atonement, and an everlasting righteousness is proclaimed, (beyond) the righteousness from the law; visions and prophecies last until John; a holy of holies is anointed. For before the Saviour's coming these things did not exist and were only expected. The angel lays down that the numbers, that is, the seventy weeks, which are 490 years, begin from the going forth of the word to answer and to build Jerusalem. This happened in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes king of the Persians. For Nehemiah, his cupbearer, made his request and received the answer that Jerusalem should be built, and a word went forth commanding this; for until that time the city had lain desolate. For when Cyrus, after the seventy years of the captivity, had sent down each of those who wished to go of his own accord, those who went down with Jesus the great priest and Zerubbabel, and those after them with Ezra, were at first prevented from building the temple and from putting a wall around the city, since this had not been commanded. So matters remained until Nehemiah and the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, the hundred and fifteenth of the Persian empire, and the hundred and eighty-fifth year from the capture of Jerusalem. Then King Artaxerxes commanded that the city be built, and Nehemiah, sent down, took charge of the work; and street and wall were built, as had been prophesied. Counting from there, the seventy weeks are completed for us at Christ. For if we begin to count from anywhere else and not from here, neither will the times agree, and a great many absurdities will result. If we make the beginning of the count of the seventy weeks from Cyrus and the first sending down, there are more than a hundred years too many; there is more time still if we count from the day on which the angel prophesied to Daniel, and much more if from the beginning of the captivity. For we find that the Persian kingdom is bounded by 230 years, that the Macedonian lasted 300 years, and from there to the sixteenth year of Tiberius Caesar 60 years. But from Artaxerxes the seventy weeks are completed at the time of Christ according to the reckoning of the Jews. For from Nehemiah, who was sent by Artaxerxes to resettle Jerusalem in the hundred and fifteenth year of the Persian kingdom, the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes himself, and the fourth year of the eighty-third Olympiad, to this time, which was the second year of the two hundred and second Olympiad and the sixteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, 475 years are reckoned. These make 490 Hebrew years, since they count their years by the lunar month, which is, roughly speaking, twenty-nine and a half days; so that, the solar cycle being 365¼ days, the lunar twelve-month falls short of it by eleven and a quarter days. For this reason both Greeks and Jews insert three intercalary months every eight years, since eight times eleven and a quarter make three months. The 475 years, then, make fifty-nine periods of eight years and three months; and with three intercalary months in each eight-year period, there come to be fifteen years, short by a few days; and these, added to the 475 years, complete the seventy weeks.”

This is how the man mentioned above has treated these passages. Come, let us too, after the interpretation given, see whether it is possible to treat the passages in another way, so that we may not seem to make the explanation more forced by stealing away the times from Cyrus to Artaxerxes, and so as not to seem, besides, to leave unexplained the reason for the division into seven weeks and sixty-two, which the divine word has surely made with some reasonable thought and very deep understanding, saying, “And you shall know and understand: from the going forth of the word to answer and to build Jerusalem until an anointed leader, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; and it shall return, and street and wall shall be built.” Consider, then, whether our explanation would not be unforced if we count the times from Cyrus himself, under whom Daniel prophesies. For he was the first to put forth the answer about raising up Jerusalem, according to the Scripture in Ezra, which runs as follows: “And in the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, that the word of the Lord from the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of the Persians, and he made a proclamation throughout his whole kingdom, and also in writing, saying, ‘Thus says Cyrus king of the Persians: The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judea. Who is there among you of all his people? His God shall be with him, and he shall go up to Jerusalem,’” and what follows; to which is added: “And King Cyrus brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the house of his god. And Cyrus king of the Persians brought them out by the hand of Mithridates and counted them out to Samanassar, the ruler of Judah.” After this the Scripture relates how the first to go up lay the foundations of the temple, and how they are kept from their zeal in the time between, until the seventh week of years; for forty-six years are counted from Cyrus to the sixth year of Darius, in which the building of the temple was completed. Hence the word fittingly separated the first seven weeks from the rest, wishing to show the time between the first laying of the temple's foundations and its full completion. For Cyrus reigned thirty-one years and handed the rule to his son Cambyses; and when he had lasted nine years, Darius received the kingdom and again, after Cyrus, ordered by decree that Jerusalem be built. And in the sixth year of his reign, which was the forty-sixth from Cyrus, the building was completed. Starting from this they said to our Saviour, “This temple was built in forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But according to Josephus, exactly forty-nine years are reckoned from Cyrus to the ninth year of Darius, in which, he says in the eleventh book of the Antiquities, the building of the temple was completed, stating in so many words that the temple was built in the seventh month of the ninth year of the reign of Darius; to which he adds, saying, “They settled in Jerusalem, using an aristocratic constitution with oligarchy; for the priests presided over affairs until the descendants of Asamonaeus came to reign.” These, then, are the seven weeks of the prophecy, bounded by the year of Darius mentioned; and it is evident why they have been separated from the rest.

Let us see also to what times the remaining sixty-two are bounded. The ninth year of Darius is shown, from the history of the Greek chronographers, to fall in the sixty-seventh Olympiad. From this to the hundred and sixteenth Olympiad, in which Seleucus, after the death of Alexander, became master of all Syria and Babylonia, are two hundred years. From there to the death of Simon, high priest of the Jews, 177 years of the Syrian rule passed, as the first of the books called Maccabees indicates, which carries its history down to that point. Again from there Josephus, recording most exactly the successions of the priests, says that after the Simon mentioned, John, also called Hyrcanus, led the people for twenty-nine years; that Aristobulus succeeded him, who also reigned one year; and after him Alexander for twenty-seven years, after whom came his wife Alexandra. Up to her, all the years from the ninth year of Darius are reckoned at 434, which is what the sixty-two weeks would make, in which the anointed leaders, who would be the high priests, beginning from Cyrus, presided over the affairs of the nation. For it is evident from the sacred Scripture, (and indeed) also from the words of Josephus set out above, that after the return from Babylon, beginning from Jesus the great priest himself, they had as leaders and rulers men in succession, down to those whom Josephus names the sons of Asamonaeus, whom the Scripture named Maccabees. Of these the first to be high priest was Judas, called Maccabaeus, who also led the people after routing the generals of Antiochus; after him his brother Jonathan took over both the high priesthood and the leadership of the people; and again his brother Simon was high priest, after whom Hyrcanus, after whom Judas, also called Aristobulus, succeeds, and he was the first to put on a diadem with the high priesthood and kingship. After him Alexander, having received both the high priesthood and the kingship, dies leaving his wife as successor. At this point, when the weeks in Daniel are completed, the rulers from the priests, called anointed ones, come to an end; so that the oracle that says “until an anointed leader” shows that there will be so many weeks; as if it had said more clearly that sixty-nine weeks of years would pass, that is, (a time) of 483 years, during which an anointed one and high priest, leading in succession, would preside over the affairs of the people. And it is clear to everyone from what we have set out that such a number of years is shown from Cyrus to the death of Alexander, the last of their high priests to lead. After him a woman, alone of all who ever ruled, then took over the kingship of the nation, and from her both the leadership of the Jews and the high priesthood that had proceeded steadily from their forefathers were thrown into confusion. Having taken over the rule, she gives the high priesthood to her son Hyrcanus, while she herself holds the kingship for nine years and dies. After her Aristobulus, who had quarrelled greatly with his brother, takes the high priesthood from him, and himself falls from it and from the kingship in the third year. For Pompey, the Roman general, at once came upon them, besieged Jerusalem by force, and defiled the holy things, going as far as the innermost sanctuary of the temple, and sent Aristobulus in chains to Rome with his children. After this, when Hyrcanus too had been led captive by the Parthians, Herod, the first from the nations, was entrusted by the Roman senate with the kingship over the Jews; an Idumean by descent on his father's side and an Arab on his mother's, as Josephus relates; but, as Africanus, whom we mentioned a little before, says, those who have exact knowledge of his affairs say that Antipater (who was his father) was the son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of the temple slaves at the shrine of Apollo.

When the rule of the Jews passed to such a man, then, together with the other prophets, the prediction of Jacob recorded by Moses was also fulfilled, which says, “A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes for whom it is laid up; and he is the expectation of nations.” It is evident from the histories and from what we have set out that until Herod, under whom Christ was born, the rule of Hebrews from among themselves, leading the whole nation in succession, did not fail; but when Herod, the first of foreign race, reigned over them, at once the coming of Christ was fulfilled, and the foretold expectation of the nations began to be accomplished in fact through our Saviour's teaching, which ran through every nation. Then too the prediction in Daniel after the weeks we have discussed was sealed, which says, “And after the sixty-two weeks an anointing shall be destroyed, and there is no judgment in it; and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the leader who is coming, and they shall be cut off in a flood, and until the end of the war, which is cut short, with desolations.” In what way the prophecy of the weeks foretold, the first seven [the text reads fifty-seven] and the sixty-two after them, in which by succession an anointed one and high priest led the people (which is why the oracle says “until an anointed leader”), reached its end in the times of Herod, has been shown as far as we are able. And how, after this, when the time of the weeks mentioned was completed, an anointing was destroyed, because there was no judgment in it, as the oracle indicates (meaning that with reasonable judgment the anointing of the high priesthood would come to an end at the time indicated), would be clear to those who attend both to the ordinance of the law (in which it is commanded that those to whom it belongs by family succession should hold the high priesthood for life until their very death) and to the history down to the times of Herod, which shows that the high priests in succession were deemed worthy of the honour throughout their whole life in keeping with the legislation about them; and how under Herod himself not only was such an ordinance concerning the high priests confused and destroyed, but Herod, though of foreign race, took from them the authority over the holy vestment, which was permitted to the high priest alone, since no one else but he could minister in it, and put it under his own control.

If proofs of these things too are needed, receive the words of the witness (which) Josephus, himself a Hebrew, who was deemed worthy of the honour of the priests and of the most distinguished family among them, set down in the twentieth book of the Antiquities. About the overturning of the high priests he writes, word for word, somewhat as follows: “Herod, having been entrusted with the kingship by the Romans, no longer appointed high priests from the family of Asamonaeus, but assigned the honour to certain undistinguished men who were not from the priests, except for one, Aristobulus. Having appointed as high priest Aristobulus, son of the Hyrcanus who had been taken captive by the Parthians, he married his sister Mariamme, seeking to win the goodwill of the people toward himself because of the memory of Hyrcanus. Then, afraid that all would turn to Aristobulus, he killed him at Jericho, contriving that he be drowned while swimming, as we have already related. After him he no longer entrusted the high priesthood to the descendants of the sons of Asamonaeus. Archelaus his son did the same as Herod concerning the appointment of the high priests, and after him the Romans, when they took over the rule of the Jews.” So Josephus on these matters. About the high-priestly vestment he relates this in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities: “Herod, when he became king, having built this tower lavishly, since it lay in a suitable place, called it Antonia, and he kept the high-priestly vestment, which he found lying there, believing that because of it the people would make no revolt against him. Archelaus, his son, who was appointed king after him, did the same as Herod; and from him the Romans took over the rule and kept control of the high priest's vestment, which was stored under seal in a house built of stone.” From these things there would be an indisputable proof that the prophecy's limits were reached at the times shown. If those of the circumcision do not agree with this, they must be asked for an explanation of the Scripture other than ours, and it must be shown that on their view the predictions of so great a being as Gabriel must be proved false, if none of the things foretold has happened from then until now, when already nearly a thousand years have passed. But to us the word is clearly shown to be true according to the explanations we have set out without force; and in keeping with them it is easy to show how the last single week, brought in after all the rest, “confirmed a covenant with many”: the new covenant of the saving preaching, which was spread over the whole inhabited world and preached no longer to the one nation of the Jews only, but already to many, so that for this reason it is said, “One week shall confirm a covenant with many.”

It is reasonable to note that the last single week, which the word says will confirm a covenant with the many, is not joined in sequence to the other weeks. For it did not do with the one week as with the seven and the sixty-two weeks. In their case, dividing the number of the whole time into the seven and then the sixty-two weeks, it made a continuous division, joining the sixty-two to the seven and leaving no time or event between them, since no interval of time is introduced that divides and separates the continuous history of those weeks. But in the case of the single week that follows there is a long and separated interval. For after the sixty-two weeks, it says first, “an anointing shall be destroyed, and there is no judgment in it,” which, it is evident, reached its end in the times of Herod. Then it says, “and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the leader who is coming.” And who will destroy but the destroyer of souls, the devil? And who is the leader who is coming but Herod, the first from the nations to lead them, and those after him who have held the leadership over the Jews until now? For just as the prophecy enigmatically called the high priests who of old led them “an anointed leader,” in the same way it called those from the nations who ruled them after those had ceased “a leader who is coming,” saying, “and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the leader who is coming.” Aquila rendered this more clearly, putting, “and the people of a leader who is coming shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” And it is evident how the people and the army of the leaders from the nations who took over the rule of the Jews after the anointed leaders, using the laws of the nations, destroyed both the city and the sanctuary; and how, in the spiritual sense, the destroyer who leads souls, together with the leader who came according to the prophecy, worked every destruction, first on the people itself and on the citizens who lived in the city, and then also on the temple and the worship that was long performed in it. A divine oracle, signifying beforehand this as the cause of Christ's coming, which happened at once, says somewhere: “The Lord looked down from heaven on the sons of men, to see if there is anyone who understands or seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is none who does kindness, there is not even one.” Then, as of those mentioned being corrupted, the word teaches beforehand what would overtake them, saying, “And they shall be cut off in the flood”; and they will be cut off to such an extent, “until the end of the war, which is cut short, with desolations.” And while these things are still being accomplished and carried out, “one week shall confirm a covenant with many.” This would be the week of the saving preaching, through which our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ confirmed the handing on of the new covenant among the many who were made his disciples: at one time before the passion, living with them and sharing their life; at another, after the resurrection, appearing to them for forty days, eating with them, and speaking about the kingdom of God; which is why he also commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem. In the half of this week, through the plot he suffered from the Jews, the rest of the divine prediction was also fulfilled; for that he preached for about three and a half years is shown by the Scripture of the Gospels. This is why it is said, “And in the half of the week sacrifice and libation shall be taken away.” And it is clear how, at the time of the passion, sacrifice and libation were taken away from them in power, when, according to the Scripture of the Gospels, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, and according to the history of Josephus, “At the very Pentecost, the priests, going into the temple by night for their services, as was their custom, said that they first perceived a movement and a noise, and after that a voice of many: ‘Let us depart from here.’” Josephus, having handed down these things word for word and others like them in his histories, would help us to prove that after the saving passion the bodily worship of the people was in power dissolved and destroyed.

I know also another interpretation given of the week that confirmed a covenant with many. This interpretation takes it as a week of decades and shows that the whole time of the apostles extends to seventy years, in which the preaching of the new covenant, preached no longer to one nation but to many, was confirmed throughout the whole inhabited world. For it is shown from the histories that John, the disciple of the Lord, survived his ascension by seventy years; for the account has it that he remained until the reign of Trajan. According to this explanation it is evident how, in the half of this week of decades, sacrifice and libation were taken away, and the so-called abomination of desolation stood in the holy place. For the time from our Saviour's resurrection to the last siege under Vespasian extends to thirty-five years, which would be the half of the week given; when the old temple and holy sanctuary suffered complete destruction by fire and razing, and “sacrifice and libation shall be taken away, and upon the temple an abomination of desolations” received its seal. The oracle shows that this abomination of desolation will remain until the consummation of the world, saying, “And until the consummation of the time a consummation shall be given upon the desolation.” But we have set these things out in an abridged account. It is now time to go on to Isaiah, who alone of the whole Old Testament remains for us.

As we attempt to gather the Prophetic Extracts from Isaiah, which alone remain for us, we shall first set out a few things, against those who are disposed to disbelieve the prophecies, to show the truth of the prophets. And first I shall set out an argument well observed by those before us. They seem to me to have said well that the Law itself solemnly testifies to those under the law of Moses that the nations among whom they will live will listen to omens and divinations: “But to you,” it says, “the Lord your God has not given it so.” And further, the divine word, keeping them away from augury and all the meddlesome divination that comes through demons, adds, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers.” If, then, these things had been written for them but had not happened in fact, and there had been no prophetic men among them, could they have believed the Law, and the word that promised these things, when it was so openly and plainly lying? Or would they not clearly, drawn by their very craving for foreknowledge of what was to come, have despised their own Scriptures as having nothing true or divine, because there were no prophets among them, and deserted of their own accord to the oracles and soothsayings of the nations? But they evidently accepted not only Moses but many after him as prophets of God, clearly for no other reason than that they had had experience of the divinity in them. For these men foretold to them not only things that were to happen long afterwards, but also predicted certain everyday matters of life, such as about lost donkeys, and about the dangerously sick, whether they would live or not, and about plenty that was to come to the people, and countless other things recorded in their histories. If these things did not happen in this way, let someone answer for what reason they thought them prophets and called them so, or why they deemed their words worthy of writing. What is the cause for which they handed down their writings, as divine, to their children afterwards? For it is most implausible of all to think that, having seen nothing divine or marvellous in these men, they formed such opinions about them idly and in vain. If anyone runs back in thought to those times, what would he think when he saw rustic men, plain in appearance, goatherds and shepherds, coming into the midst of the whole nation and saying things as in the person of God, crying out, “Thus says the Lord,” addressing kings and the whole people with undaunted boldness, displaying a wisdom beyond the human, which is still found even now in their prophecies, philosophizing on countless other secret matters through riddles and parables, handing on to the people moral and doctrinal teaching in the Hebrew tongue, and besides this showing a life in keeping with their words, speaking to all without flattery, and rebuking the ungodly to their faces, so that they were plotted against by them even to death, while standing by the true word with strong and noble boldness? Anyone who takes these things to heart fairly, how would he not confess that all this happened in them according to a truly divine inspiration? This is why it was natural that they were then admired by the sensible, that their words were preserved in writing by the sacred scribes, and that still now they are believed by the whole nation to have been prophets of God. Our treatment of Christ shows this most plainly of all, in which we demonstrate that the whole dispensation concerning him, both his teaching and the calling of all nations through him, was exactly foreknown and foretold countless years before by those inspired men; whose sacred books the Jews, who would be more trustworthy than we, guard and bring forward with every reverent honour. Having usefully set out these things first, we must proceed to our subject.